On bikies, Martin Lund said: > I don't think anyone was applauding the city Mike and I'm quite certain that anyone who wrote in to city offices expressing concerns with the current configuration agrees with you wholeheartedly on your points of increased parking, increased driving, and the environmental impact involved. People were saying thanks to those among us who took the time and effort, as you often do, to approach city officials about our concerns so that we can make the best out of the situation. >
Okay. Sorry about that. We should pat each other of the back whenever we can, and you are very gracious at doing that. But if we all know more personal motor vehicle driving to and on the Capital Square is a bad thing, why do we even bother making "the best out of this situation"? I think we should continue to ardently protest the intial decision to return traffic to the square in the first place. That's what I meant when I said I and few others of us were not hear, or at least not paid much attention to. The City ought be doing the exact opposite of what it is proposing here, and that is, it should be encouraging LESS motor vehicle driving in Madison, NOT MORE MOTOR VEHICLE DRIVING. At a very visible and important location like the Capitol Square, for the city to be promoting a return to more automobile parking shows a clear lack of awareness to the seriousness of too much automobile driving in the city to the growing air quality problems, adverse human health impacts as well as the economic threats facing us if we end up with too many air standards violation (to say nothing about auto emission contributions to global warming). We should be continuing to express strong opposition to continuing with this ridiculous experiment, rather than conceding to continue testing different configurations to make it "work". In reality, the public health of bicyclists and the many thousands of other users of the Square during this year will no doubt be harmed by the increased motor vehicle exhaust from the increased number of motor vehicles around it. After all, it is the bicyclists who are closest to the exhaust pipes of the increasing number of motorized vehicles burning fuel around the Square, along with pedestrians and others who use the Square for recreation, cultural activities and other social/political and commercial events. Additionally, the previous amenities such as the lack of traffic noise (except from Madison Metro buses), minimal automobile exhaust odors, and the overall aesthetics of the Capitol building and grounds, minus the cars, will also be sacrificed for the return of public parking and more motor vehicle use of it. I doubt these things even entered the minds of the people who made in the decision to proceed with this unwise experiment being conducted during the heat of summer of all times. The next thing we'll likely see is a proposal to return to unlimited motor vehicle driving on State Street. So for now anyway, the Car is again King in Madison. Yeah, Bravo - Not. Mike Neuman _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
